More Than 10 Natural and Safe Ways to Color Your Hair Without Damage.

Hair coloring is an integral part of the fashion arsenal of modern women and increasingly men. This is evident by the billion-dollar incomes of hair dyeing and coloring brands.

While most consumers buy synthetic hair dyeing brands, studies have shown that awareness amongst the masses about hazards of these synthetic products have increased in recent years. These store-bought products contain potentially detrimental chemicals that, at high exposures, have been associated with skin and breathing infections, a weakened immune system, and even cancer.

Benefits of Natural Hair Color

Natural and herbal hair colors have significant benefits over synthetic products; these can be summarized as follows:

No addition of harmful chemicals and health friendly

No pungent smell

No or very limited hair damage

A more natural hair look

Cheaper than store-bought

Drawbacks

Unfortunately, going all-natural has its demerits as well. These include:

Actual color of hair is dependent on the ingredients and herbs used, their ratio, application method and natural hair color. Therefore, experimentation is required before settling for the desired color.

Hair colors do not last long as compared to synthetic products.

However, we feel that these drawbacks are insignificant and health of our skin and hair takes precedence over the ease of using these carcinogenic liquids.

Herbs and Natural Ingredients to Darken hair

Coffee and Tea are ideal for dyeing hairs darker because of their dark hues. Tea, however, works best depending on natural hair color.

Recipe:

Start by brewing the tea or coffee by boiling 1 tablespoon in 1 and a half cup water for a quarter of an hour. Once the water has reduced by about a third, let it cool naturally. Later, Filter the brew and continue to wash your hair. It may help to Condition your hair first and then carefully pour the brew through your damp hair.

Another method is to use Rosemary, Nettle and Sage herbs.

Recipe:

Boil the herbs with water in a small pan until herbs release their color and water is very dark. Turn off the heat and cool it then strain herbs out. It is advised to use a filter to remove all small pieces. The best thing about this mixture is that it can be stored for future use. It is advisable to store it in a refrigerator.

When you want to dye your hair, Spray or brush the mixture on your scalp about an hour before showering each day. To clean off any extra bit you can shampoo as usual.

Walnut Shells powder acts as a very strong dark hair dye

Recipe:

Put a quarter cup of dried Walnut shells in a grinder and grind to reduce the shells to a fine powder. Put this powder in a tea bag and place in 3 cups of water for at least 6 hours or ideally overnight. Recommended use is to use this liquid as a rinse in the shower for hair and dry in the sun or through blow-dryer if possible.

Combine Soy Sauce and Apple Cider Vinegar in a bottle and set it aside for even mixing. Prior to dying your hair, shampoo, and condition as usual. Pour this mixture through your hair as a final rinse and dry without using a towel.

Herbs and Natural Ingredients to Lighten hair

Tea is such a wonderful natural hair dye. It can also be used to lighten hair shades. A blend of Chamomile Tea and Calendula Tea gives impressive results. In addition to dark color, Calendula Tea gives a golden hue.

Recipe:

Mix two cups of Chamomile Tea and a half cup of Calendula Tea in a small container. To prevent settling of contents, shake well before each use. Spray into hair and brush through to get equal distribution on the required part of hairs. It is best to dry this mixture in a sun for 1-2 hours before having a final rinse.

Lemon also lightens the hair color and is one of the best natural hair dye.

Recipe:

Using a spray bottle is advisable as diluted lemon juice can be evenly sprayed onto hairs. As with other mixtures, always Shake well before each use. Directly spray on target areas of the head and before heading out into the sun for about an hour Or blow-dry parts of hair to lighten them.

Rhubarb root has properties that help lighten the hair.

Sunflower Petals and Marigold also can be used to dye hair light.

Herbs and Natural Ingredients to Cover Gray hair

Covering gray hairs is easier using natural ingredients. Coffee or Tea are a natural choice. However saffron is also suitable for this purpose. This natural spice adds a golden brown hue.

Recipe:Saffron is very expensive so please be careful not to waste anything. To extract the spice color, boil up a small pot of water and place saffron in it for 20 minutes. Once the water color has changed, remove the heat and let it cool. This mixture can be conveniently applied directly to hair and scalp. For proper distribution, hair should be completely covered in this liquid. Wait till your hair is completely dry and you can shampoo and condition as usual.

Herbs and Natural Ingredients to Dye Other Shades and Colors

Stew the flowers and herbs in water for half an hour before straining to remove the solid particles. Cool before use and as with other natural colorings, spray directly on the head and dry using a blow-dry or directly in sun.

Beet and Carrot Juices are an ideal choice for adding natural red tints.

Recipe:

Apply about a cup of these juices to your hair and leave on for at least an hour.

Henna

I am including Henna in this section because this is the most famous hair dyeing natural herb but it produces colors as varying as very dark to a light shade of orange, depending on the hair color, quantity applied and exposure time.

Recipe:

It is advisable to mix about one part of henna powder with two parts lemon juice. A tablespoon vinegar can also be added to strengthen the color but it is optional. Let this mixture remain untouched for several hours until a paste is formed. Apply to hair and comb through.

If everything else fails, food-grade colors can also be added to water to use a temporary hair-dye material. However, this method must be used sporadically.

Conclusion

Always test on a small part of hair before using on the whole head, especially on the chemically treated hair. Perfect color will be achieved after trial and error, so patience is the key. Lastly, is this method for everyone? Probably not but we urge the masses to use natural hair dyes instead of the synthetic ones to avoid health issues.

Hey, Ileana! Hydrogen peroxide is a more gentle chemical than bleach, but somewhat is still harsh on hair.
Hair contain proteins, keratin, and cellulose, that are negatively impacted when they come in contact with chemicals. Peroxide can weaken the bonds of your hair, cause loss of moisture, and damage the cuticle. If your hair is already thin, dry or damaged, applying hydrogen peroxide will not add any benefits to the health of your hair. Also, keep in mind that this color is permanent, because of color pigments will be destroyed completely-until new hair grows in.

Yes, and one of the best natural products for darkening hair is Basma. It used as a hair dye and it dye gray hair as well. in addition, Basma promotes hair growth and improves hair strength hair roots. It makes hair soft and elastic, and gives it healthy shine.

Hi Olina,
Wow, great article. I had no idea you could colour your hair this way. It certainly makes sense though. I’ve been using synthetic dyes for years now. Fortunately I haven’t had any adverse effects but the natural way is always healthier.
Do you know how long the colour stays in when using natural methods? I have quite a lot of grey I like to cover, with a reddish light brown colour.
Cheers,
Suzanne

Hi Suzanne, black tea will darken hair and cover up gray. If you look for lighter color, there are different teas that you can use for that. Chamomile tea will bring out natural blonde highlights. Rooibos will give the reddish tint .

The result is semi-permanent and depend on for how long you let sit the tea in your hair and how often often you use it. The more often you use-better results last (optimal is ones in a week or every other week)

Make your tea very concentrated: 3-5 teabags for a cup of boiling water, let it cool down and mix it with any conditioner. To cover gray hair, mix the tea with some fresh or dried sage – this will help open up hair follicles.

Let the mixture to sit on your hair from one to 4 hours hour,or cover hair with a shower cap and leave it on all night for the better result.
For a light reddish tint – brew a strong cup of tea from dried rose hips. Boil one cups of water and one cup of rose hips. Cool the tea, strain it, and apply to your hair. After twenty minutes, rinse. Repeat as desired.
You can also use mixture of Henna and any of these tea to cover gray as well!
I hope it will help you! All the best!

Wow, thank you for this information. I used to use henna a long while ago to dye my hair but have fallen victim to the ease of use of other shop-bought products for a few years now. However I’d love to get back to more natural ways, not only because it doesn’t have all the chemicals which can harm not only me, but the environment, but also because I just feel it will give a more natural colour. Am very interested in trying out the carrot one! Do I just leave it on and then rinse it off? How long should I expect colour tints like this to last? Look forward to your reply. Gail

Hi Gail, thanks for your question. I love henna a lot, however agree with you that it is a little messy. We all want to move with our life faster ;). Juices is a nice compromise here. I see you have a dark hair ( at least on your picture) and you will have a great benefits from mixing carrot and beets juices together ( 1:1) to get reddish tint. Just make the juices fresh ( for better benefits add 1 tsp of argan or coconut oil ) and apply on clean hair, cover with a shower cap and a warm towel to absorb, and let it sit from 1 to 4 hours (depends on results you want). Them just rinse it with warm water and you will have a nice natural reddish lightening! Your tint will be more intense if you repeat the process every 1 or 2 weeks. It’s easy, natural, healthy, cheap, and will give you a nice shine and beautiful tint.

I’ve seen sellers on Etsy selling vegan Henna hair dye before but didn’t give it a second thought. I had NO idea that you can use completely natural ingredients to dye your hair. Coffee? Tea? Things we eat for food? Amazing. I feel like coffee would be really good for your scalp. Because everything is natural and safe, you can really experiment with ingredients and colors. It would be interesting to see the “natural hair dye” niche blow up on Etsy so more people can try it.

Hi Valerie, henna is also a natural product (prepared from the plant Lawsonia inermis) and it comes in different types. With henna you can achieve collor from brown, copper, red, reddish to blond . Henna also helping with hair growth, dandruff, improves hair texture. My mother had her gray hair at a very young age ( after 30-th) and she has always experimented with natural dye to change her color , mixing henna with other natural ingredients like coffee, tea, etc.with getting a great lasting result.In her 80-es now, she still has a very strong beautiful hair.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

Example Widget

This is an example widget to show how the Right Sidebar looks by default. You can add custom widgets from the widgets screen in the admin. If custom widgets are added then this will be replaced by those widgets.